Left Sherman on December 18 and headed south for our winter respite from the frigid north.  Had nice visits in San Marcos with Katie and her family, and in Houston with John and Cory and their families.  Kay fixed the traditional beef burgundy for "early" Christmas Eve with Katie, and the actual Christmas Eve at Cory's house.  Christmas day was also spent at Cory's.  Had nice weather while in Houston......or at least no snow.

On December 26, the day before our 40th wedding anniversary, we all (Katie drove over and joined us) went out to dinner at Rudi Lechner's German restaurant in Houston.  Great food and a great time.  The kids put together a reproduction of one of our old wedding pictures, put it in a very nice frame, and presented it to us during the dinner.  They had a small "oompah" band and some of us had fun doing the Chicken dance. 

The 27th we loaded up and headed down the road, stopping for a restful night in Victoria, Tx. at the Lazy Longhorn RV Park.  UP early on the 28th, and ready to head for the tropical end of Texas.  More later...........

Ok, now it's later.  Actually it's October 2010.  After writing the last above, we both ended up getting sick, and we stayed sick for about our first two weeks at SPI.  Even though we wanted to get out and do some things, we hesitated because we didn't want to be responsible for getting our friends sick.  Anyhow, I guess it put us both out of the mood for writing anything here in the blog, and it has stuck. 

SPI was great for the last half of January, and all of February - after we healed up.  It was a lot colder than the previous year.  We even got sleet one day!!  Went to Walmart on the sleet day to get stuff to make a pot of chili.  Being good Yankees, we put beans in our chili.  I knew we had lots of Yankee friends around, as we got the last four cans of kidney beans in the store!

The bicycle bar-hop thing went so well last year, that we had two of them this year.  The first ride, we met for lunch at a dollar hamburger place.  Burgers and beer, and then it was off  on the grind.  I think we made it to five bars total.  All had a great time.  We had about 30 riders, and some ride-in-the-car cheaters.  Managed to get home just before dark.  Our orange "Tour de Padre"  t-shirts are great.  We proudly wore them on the second ride that got squeezed in on the day before we headed north. 

We did a little landscaping in the yard this year.  We planted annual rye grass, so we go some green on the yard.  Funny how many of the seeds actually sprouted after the pigeons ate their fill of them.  Kay got some flowers, shells, and edging material, and did a really nice job on our palm tree.   I got the oranges.....



Mexico was fun on this trip.  We made a couple of trips with Ronnie and Judy Whiteley.  We go to Progresso, which is a small town just south of McAllen.  Lots of Americans go there for just a few things - Dentists, Prescription Drugs, Liquor and Tobacco.  They probably have 150 dentists, and lots of senior citizens who go there just for their services.  Much, much cheaper than the US.  Drugs are cheaper, also, and can be purchased without a prescription.  Of course we seize the opportunity to stock up on Kahlua and tequila.   We also enjoy attending lots of happy hours with Ronnie and Judy - see pic below.



Another high point of this trip was kites.  We went to a big kite weekend that they have every year on SPI, and we were so impressed, that we went out the next week and bought a stunt kite.  We have both flown it, and we both have much to learn, but we are looking forward to getting back to the beach this winter.  

Probably the biggest high point of the winter was our red snapper fishing trip in late February.  We all got our limit of fish.  The eight fish that Kay and I got weighed in at over 50 pounds.  See the picture of Kay and I with the catch from the whole boat.